We spent the first week of April (and the first week of the school Easter holidays) in Fuerteventura this year!  It was a holiday I had been counting down to for an entire year as we had booked it so long ago!  I was hoping to go away at the end of last summer or the October half term, but as we had never gone abroad on a package holiday with the kids we decided to treat ourselves to a 4* all-inclusive hotel and so needed a little longer to pay it off!  Booking one year in advance is definitely a long wait and I probably won’t book anything so long in advance again.  I checked the prices a couple of times throughout the year and they barely changed for our holiday.  In this blog post I’ll share why I think Fuerteventura is a great family friendly holiday destination.

If you want to know my honest opinion of the hotel, click here: First Choice Premier Family Holiday Review: Club Jandia Princess Hotel in Fuerteventura

Having only taken the kids to Germany several times to visit family and to Cornwall or weekend trips away in England, we weren’t sure how a beach holiday abroad would go.  It’s certainly different holidaying abroad with kids who are five and three, as opposed to all the holidays I have been used to going on by myself as an adult.  You know – relaxing, by the pool, by the beach, fall asleep, go out, do whatever I like type holidays.  As opposed to a keep an eye on the kids every ten seconds and make sure they’re not drowning or running off type holiday!  Not so relaxing and care free!

I think things will certainly be a LOT easier next year for holidaying when Reuben is four years old and more of an actual child, rather than a toddler.  He only just turned three in March so we’re just entering that preschool phase and gradually leaving the toddler stage as his language and independence develops.  As the kids get older our experience of holidays will definitely change.  We’ll be able to travel further, do more activities and not be so restricted to toddler friendly days only.

With all that being said, I think Fuerteventura is a great family holiday destination, for both young children and older children.  Based on our experience of taking a five year old and a three year old, here are the reasons why I think Fuerteventura is a family friendly holiday spot:

Reasonable flight time

Fuerteventura is only a four hour flight, so it’s just the right amount of time for kids before they start getting drastically bored, hungry or tired!  Reuben was pretty wriggly on the flight out, but he still wasn’t too bad and we managed to entertain him.  Bella is now five and you’d not have known she was on the flight.  iPad with music, camera and games and that was her satisfied the entire duration.  Reuben needed more entertaining and got bored of the iPad every ten minutes so next time we’ll upload a film or cartoons for him to watch.  We bought headphones for the iPads at the airport which was a very worthwhile investment.

Unusual Scenery

The children were amazed by the scenery and it’s so good to explore a country which looks totally different to what the children see every day.  Reuben is obsessed with dinosaurs so he thought we were in dinosaur land!  The peaked volcanic rocky landscape looked like volcanoes were everywhere and as he can’t pronounce his Vs he shouted ‘bumcano!’ every time he saw one!  The kids were happy on coach and taxi rides to just look out of the windows at the amazing landscape.

Warm temperatures

We went in April and it was around 19-21 degrees Celsius each day.  We had pretty much guaranteed sunshine for the week and it wasn’t so hot we couldn’t do anything.  This temperature is great for young children.  I can imagine the summer months would have been too hot for them, as well as my heat hating husband!

Child friendly excursions

We went on two excursions – one to a wildlife park and cactus garden called Oasis Park and another on a pirate ship adventure from Morro Jable.   These were brilliant for the kids.  The pirate tour was totally aimed at children, though adults have just as much fun.  We saw dolphins and enjoyed being out at sea.  The pirates played games with the kids and we even had a BBQ on board.   Oasis Park is a beautiful zoo filled with all sorts of animals such as sea lions, parrots, giraffes, camels, reptiles and more with live animal shows.  They are also home to the largest cactus garden in Europe.

Family friendly hotels

The hotel we stayed in, Princess Jandia, was very family friendly with a small petting farm, kids buffet, splash pool and family pool, beach on the doorstep and a kids club.  There are plenty of family friendly hotels all around Fuerteventura that aim to make your stay with kids as fun and relaxing as possible.

I’d definitely recommend Fuerteventura for a holiday with young children and we’d absolutely consider returning.